


Marvel

by Blue_Hood



Series: Unity [2]
Category: Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics), Iron Man (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-10-29 19:19:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17813957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: Carol Danvers had stopped thinking she had a home.





	Marvel

Carol Danvers was afraid to go home. Honestly, she'd stopped thinking she had a home, having spent years off-world. She remembered receiving a hail from her old home world quite clearly. The coordinates led her to where her old Command School pal James Rhodes, a colonel by his uniform, was waiting. She landed and saluted with a smile "Colonel Rhodes."

He saluted right back with a smile of his own, "Captain Danvers, follow me." They entered the Tower, there was no other word for the structure. "Welcome back to Earth. This place is known as Stark Tower. A friend of mine, who you haven't met yet, claimed he could call you." He sat down in a lounge area and gestured for her to do the same before beginning to brief her "Mutant rights are a thing now. My friend, Pyro was key to ensuring the law that made it so didn't include a registration clause and many loopholes. He also got his hands on a copy of the SHIELD database, I don't know how but he's been using his copy to help the people SHIELD hurt. Enhanced is the official term for people who are more than human, whether due to external forces or means such as experiments and lucky accidents, or genetics like mutants. Pyro discovered that Peggy Carter covered up the murders of Howard and Maria Stark, telling Tony that Howard killed them drunk driving. Most of SHIELD's collateral damage Pyro deals with directly but he has enough tact to be underhanded. He believes this world will need saving and its heroes need to be united. He thinks Fury's need to hold all the cards prevents that. If you're willing to stick around then I could introduce you and maybe he'll give you access to the database, his reorganized SHIELD database. He's sure to tell you what he wants from you. He can ramble but he doesn't talk in circles too much if you catch him and tell him he's rambling. Most of the time, he's very direct, blunt even. Sees himself as a messenger because he was one for the two major mutant factions. He doesn't realize what he's doing is incredible. At best, he calls it logistics. Your call, Captain?"

"This Pyro, he hailed me?" Rhodes nodded. "I'd like to meet him."

"Great but, uh, first, if you don't mind, I'd like to give you a debriefing packet to catch you up on the time you missed. I'd like to avoid hearing comparisons to space and pretending I understand if that's good or bad. Pyro gets distracted enough by his own mind."

"I understand, Colonel."

"We're friends, you can call me Rhodey." He paused on his way out of the lounge, "What do you prefer to be called? Pyro likes to be called Pyro, says it's his mutant name."

"Carol is fine, my call sign is Captain Marvel these days."

"Ok." After Carol finished reading the packet, Rhodey gave her some sweats to throw on over her super suit and drove her to the school "Hey, Pyro. This is Carol Danvers, call sign Captain Marvel." Rhodey looked at Carol "I don't know if your packet mentioned my call sign."

"War Machine, it did."

Pyro extended his hand "John Allerdyce, I'm guessing Rhodey forgot to mention my regular name."

Carol shook his hand "He did but my packet included how you pushed mutant rights through and exposed Ross."

"Probably because you're Enhanced. You are, right?"

Carol smiled "Yeah. You prefer Pyro, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine with John too. We have some training facilities; well, we have one room for simulations but mutant powers can't be crazier than yours. I can suit up and we can run an exercise if it's open." Without looking, he caught Rhodey trying to slip away and steered him back. "Either way, you and Rhodey should see our base. I want to see your powers, preferably in action against simulated Sentinels, I think the Sentinel program is the highest difficulty neutral one. Pyrokinesis is the ability to create and manipulate fire, I can only do the latter. Reports where people are trying to sound smart don't say much is my point. Seeing is believing, leave the files for future historians."

Carol and Rhodey followed John into a hidden elevator. John led them to a window where they stopped to watch a training session "I called the Sentinel simulation neutral because this base was built for the X-Men, plenty of sims against enemy mutants. We can go to a clearing in the woods, the Danger Room would record your stats but if you're serious about sticking around then I can reserve it for you later. I'll give you a tour, try to kill some time, maybe we can steal my team's training time later. I wanna get your stats, maybe let Dr. Grey get a look at you for a medical file. There's no rush.”

They watched Cyclops lead young mutants against Danger Room defenses for a few minutes before Rhodey asked “What do you teach?”

“Creative writing.” John explained “I used to get stories taken from me because I wasn't paying attention to the teacher during class, which the Professor remembered when it came time to find places for my team to stay on to be X-Men. By the Professor, I mean Charles Xavier. All of us teachers are called professors, might be a private school thing.”

Carol cut it “You were a student here? You're an X-Man?”

“Yes, I was a student here. Being a messenger, my last two years were unique but I'd already been here a few years. I tested out of a lot of classes, got life experience to teach me the material. My transcripts are a mess because I tested out of more classes my Junior and Senior years than I took in the two years before. I'm fully fluent in many foreign languages, not just the standard 2 Spanish credits most high school grads have. Testing through improved my GPA, I think.”

“You're an X-Man,” prompted Carol.

“I'm on a team of X-Men, yes, but I fit in with Mystique, Multiple Man, Magneto and even Sabretooth from being a part-timer before the merger. I still clash with Cyclops. These days the Brotherhood are X-Men without the uniforms.”

Rhodey said “I think we're ready for that tour.”

John looked at them then moved on, “This base was designed and built by Dr. Henry McCoy, codename Beast. In fact I'd go so far as to call him the real cofounder of both the school and the X-Men. As it stands today, we call Erik Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto, the cofounder. The original X-Men began a couple decades, about twenty years if I'm not mistaken, after Erik and Charles split on a beach in Cuba. Charles didn't want to teach young mutants to fight, Erik believed violence was all humans understood thus war between our species is inevitable. You can understand why Magneto is called the Malcolm X to Charles, MLK.” He backed into a hanger “Dr. McCoy agreed mutants need to fight but disagreed with the notion that war is inevitable, he created not only the foundation for the X-Men but the idea of X-Men. Behind me is the Blackbird, the X-Jet if you will.” John grinned “Wanna take a look inside?”

Carol and Rhodey nodded. Inside, John said “Obviously this can't be the original from the 80s or the Cuban-era jet the first X-Men used.”

Rhodey agreed “This is very advanced.”

Carol wandered into the pilot's chair “Haven't been in one of these in a long time?”

John asked “Wanna fly it? I can get us cleared and be your copilot, just give me a few minutes.”

Carol looked at him awestruck “Really?”

“It'll be good to take this bird for a spin. We fly commercial most of the time now. I don't think we've trained students much younger than me to fly it.”

“That'd be great, John.”

John pulled out a strange phone “I'm taking Colonel Rhodes and Captain Danvers for a flight in the Blackbird. Open the outward hanger please.” He hung up and doors opened in the hanger wall. “Buckle up Rhodey.” John sat down in the copilot's chair then flipped some switches the gangplank retracted and all systems came online. “Alright, I'm gonna help you get out of the hanger then stay on standby in case you have any trouble. Just like teaching a student to fly, I think.”

When Carol was about to take them back, John walked her through putting the jet in hover before having the two switch places. As Rhodey took the pilot's seat, John said “Flip that switch and have fun. Don't worry about breaking the jet, you can't.” John flipped some switches and pressed some buttons to keep them safe through both pilots’ joyrides. He opened the hanger as Rhodey brought them in for a safe, swift landing.

A man wearing red shades was waiting for them just inside the hanger, John told him “I just took two ace pilots for a spin in the Blackbird.” Then he introduced “This is Scott Summers, codename Cyclops. Carol Danvers, codename Captain Marvel: she's an actual Air Force officer. Of course War Machine's pilot James Rhodes is known by every American not living under a rock. Carol is a non-mutant Enhanced, Fury chased her off the planet and I called her back. Figure maybe we can protect her, she's not a mutant but we're the only place on Earth that SHIELD can't reach.”

Scott shook Carol's hand “Nice to meet you. Welcome back to Earth. Can you tell me about your enhancements?”

John said “You can call ‘em powers and I was hoping to use the Danger Room to measure the strength of her powers. Maybe visit the infirmary so Jean can start a medical file but you go ahead and talk Cyke, do things your way.”

Scott turned as John walked off “I didn't mean-”

Rhodey cut him off “Even I thought you were taking over. You didn't defer to John, just jumped in and ignored the fact that he was already talking to us. You literally turned your back on him. Why were you waiting for us anyway?”

Scott defended “I think I know-”

“Know what? John? Has it occurred to you John was trying to do something on his own? I refrain from asking who sent him because he already downplays his accomplishments. He told us he fits in with the Brotherhood and clashes with you. We wouldn't be here if not for John inviting us, Carol wouldn't even be on planet. What were you waiting for?”

Thoroughly chastised, Scott answered “I didn't recognize the names he called in, I was waiting to see who he brought down here.”

Carol cut in before Rhodey could go on another tangent “Rhodey, let's find John.”

When they neared the infirmary, totally lost, a redhead stepped out “Can I help you?” Recognizing Rhodey after a moment, she added “Colonel Rhodes.”

Rhodey asked “Do you know where Pyro went? He was showing us around when Scott Summers accidentally took over.” Remembering his manners a second later, he introduced his companion to the redhead.

“Jean Grey,” she introduced herself as before responding “I'm the school's doctor and Scott's my husband. I'm assuming John left quickly and you gave Scott a dress down before following. He's probably either in his classroom or in the woods, regardless I'd give him time to calm down and find you. I know how they clash. You're welcome to come in and wait in the infirmary.” She stepped back, keeping the door open for the duo.

Inside, Rhodey asked “Do you know why John avoids directly contacting Tony? After giving Tony his honest opinion of Howard, Hank Pym confessed John's involvement to me and Tony's friends. He wanted us to know what changed and about Carter's cover-up so we could support Tony. John contacted me to help him help others yet he seems to be avoiding Tony. I can't figure why.”

Jean answered “I don't have all the details but I know John thinks SHIELD's directors make up most of the problem. He's afraid he'd manipulate Tony if he ever met the man because he has to keep some things to himself. It's like Scott taking charge, he doesn't do it on purpose but John knows he's manipulative because he played his best friend when they were in DC for mutant rights. John's nothing if not a pragmatist, he contacts you ‘cause he can't contact Tony. Your friend has been manipulated too much already. It'd be pointless to save him from SHIELD's manipulation just to turn around and manipulate the man himself.”

While Rhodey was at a loss, Carol cut in “Doctor Grey? John kept mentioning meeting you to start a medical file for me, think we could do that while we wait?”

Jean stood “Good idea. Powers can affect how your body works. You may have noticed that John runs a little warm when you shook hands. I'm sure you noticed Scott's glasses, his powers don't turn off. Sometimes powers don't have an effect on body systems. We'll need to build a baseline to be sure where you fall.” Jean went about her exam “We'll also need to get you in the Danger Room to record your powers themselves.”

“Seeing Scott's class in there, I look forward to it.”

Disguised as a blonde for the sake of the Colonel, Raven joined them and reported “John's sleeping on a couch in the lounge. He detoured there for a drink, I talked him down from getting drunk and got him to lie down. What'd Scott do this time? John was being passive and clearly they didn't go to blows.”

Rhodey answered “He almost took over our tour, we got lost looking for John and Doctor Grey said we could wait here for him.”

Colonel Rhodes jumped to his feet in surprise as Raven dropped her disguise to reveal scaly blue skin, yellow eyes, short red hair and grey sweats. The shifter leveled him with an unimpressed look “You can call me Raven and I can finish your tour if you'd like. Sleep is John's only escape from his own mind, I don't want him waking up before he has to. If his mind is half as strong as Charles says, it can't be fun to live with.”

Carol asked “What's so bad about him having a drink?”

Raven shrugged “It might be his strong mind or his body just burns through alcohol fast, which it must for him to be a heavyweight the first time he went drinking. Either way, John can get drunk, it happened once, but he can't get a hangover. If you managed to talk him out of his flamethrower and lighters then keep him away from fire, he'd be a fun drunk. His natural tolerance would drive him to drink too much if he was allowed to drink like I caught him trying to after his latest bout with Scott. We had to sic Sabretooth on him when he got drunk and he nearly traumatized Multiple Man.”

Carol asked “What's his end goal?”

Raven answered simply “Unite the Enhanced so no one can play us against each other.”

Rhodey asked “Do you know John's source for the SHIELD database?”

“All I know is that the source is probably Enhanced. I didn't ask, unlike some people I know trust isn't just a word. If you want that tour, I'd be glad to show you around.”

Jean agreed “The scans can wait. Colonel Rhodes has been off the grid long enough.”

Carol asked “What scans?”

“X-Ray, MRI and CT with consent of course.”

After the tour, Rhodey submitted to a psychic scan as part of the security measures on the way out. Charles and Carol discussed possible positions open at the school, deciding Carol would work with students on developing control and teach them to fly the Blackbird if there was an interest. Carol shared her findings on Steve Rogers and asked for help putting together a paper on them, in a world of Enhanced they couldn't afford to be ignorant of the past.

Carol Danvers was once afraid to go home. She forgot what it was like to have a home. Now she knew.


End file.
